Card file



Aug. 1, 1967 A. DAHL, JR

CARD FILEv 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 2, 1965 Aug. 1, 1967 E. A. DAHL, m 3,333g59g CARD FILE Filed March 2, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 3,333,590 Patented Aug. 1, 1967 3,333,590 CARD FILE Ernest A. Dahl, Jr., 729 Greenwood Ave., Wilmette, II]. 60091 Filed Mar. 2, 1965, Ser. No. 436,449 2 Claims. (Cl. 129-16) This invention rel-ates generally to the art of information retrieval and more particularly to magnetic systems of card filing.

Business and social developments in recent decades have placed emphasis on the need for efiicient storage and prompt retrieval of many types of information. Many of the technical advances aimed at satisfying this need, however, have been geared to the requirements and resources of large organizations. Small businesses frequently have as acute a need for efficient information systems as their larger counterparts; but heretofore, little has been done to aid the small businessman in solving his information problems. A prime example of a small business man with a big information problem is the auto parts dealer. He stocks thousands of parts identified by manufacturers serial numbers, but his customers ask for parts by a general description of the part and the vehicle model involved. Bulky catalogs are conventionally employed to translate the customers requirements into stock serial numbers so that the parts can be located. While this system is workable, the catalogs are numerous, bulky and unwieldy. In addition, much counterspace is taken up by these catalogs that might otherwise be devoted more productively to parts storage or other purposes.

This invention therefore takes as a principal object the replacement of bulky catalogs by a compact, card filing system.

While magnetic systems of card filing have been available heretofore for increasing the convenience of working with information that has been recorded on file cards, these prior art magnetic systems have presented substantially the same bulk as other card filing systems. Hence, a further object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic system of card filing which is characterized by its compact nature.

Another object of the invention is to provide a compact card filing device of the magnetic type which is convenient to use.

These and other objects and features of the invention will become more apparent from the consideration of the following descriptions.

A card filing device in accord with the invention includes a nonmagnetic tray for supporting a plurality of card elements in substantially upright, face-to-face relationship. Permanent magnets are located at opposite sides of the tray, and a plurality of divider cards are disposed in the tray in edge wise contact with the bottom panel thereof. Each of the divider cards comprises a non-magnetic body and magnetically permeable side elements. These side elements respond to the field of the magnets 'by developing polarity which acts to repel the side elements of adjacently disposed divider cards having like polarity. Thus, adjacent divider cards are spread apart for easy examination. Means are provided for semi-permanently mounting the divider cards in the tray, and information cards of the microfilm type are vertically slidably disposed between at least some of the divider cards for ready extraction and reinsertion.

The invention, both to its construction and its mode of operation, will be better understood by reference to the following disclosure and drawings forming a part thereof, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a card filing device constructed in compliance with the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, longitudinal sectional view taken through the card filing device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary, top plan view in cross-section, taken substantially along the line 3-3 of FIG. 2 and showing the means for semi-permanently mounting the divider cards in the tray of the card filing device;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged, front elevational view taken in section centrally through the card filing device of FIG. 1 and illustrating the magnetic circuit employed therein together with details of the divider cards and the information cards;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged, fragmentary, perspective view taken substantially along the line 55 of FIG. 4 to show the mounting for the control plates used in the card filing device of the invention; and

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of a control plate and cooperating divider cards and information cards of the general type used in the card filing device of the invention.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, specifically to FIGS. 1, 2 and 4, a card filing device indicated generally by the reference numeral 20 comprises a tray arrangement 22, magnet arrangements 24 at opposite sides of the tray arrangement 22, a plurality of divider cards 26 disposed in the tray arrangement, and a plurality of information cards 28 interleaved with the divider cards 26.

The tray arrangement 22 is particularly adapted to support a plurality of card elements in substantially upright, face-to-face relationship; and for this purpose, the tray arrangement 22 has an open top 30, opposite lateral sides 32 and.34, a front 36, a back 38 and a bottom panel 40. As will be seen in FIG. 2, the front 36 and the back 38 are interconnected by a floor panel 42 which is disposed beneath the bottom panel 40 and to which felt feet 44 are attached. With reference to FIG. 4, the tray arrangement 22 includes sidewall liners 46 having tapering upper edges 48 which act as guides for leading the information cards 28 into the hollow interior of the tray arrangement. The liners 46 are advantageously fabricated from vulcanized fiber, resinous plastic or other material of low frictional coefiicient and good resistance to wear.

The feet 44 and the liners 46 of the tray arrangement 22 have been described as being fashioned from non-magnetic materials; and the remaining elements of the tray arrangement, i.e., the sides, front, back, bottom and floor panels are likewise fabricated from non-magnetic materials so as not to interfere with the magnetic circuits developed by the magnet arrangements 24. Aluminum alloys have proved useful vin fabricating these parts for this purpose; and spot welding techniques, for example,

may be used in assembling the individual elements.

Continuing now with specific reference to FIG. 4, each of the magnet arrangements 24 includes an elongated, permanent magnet 50 and a non-magnetic housing strip 52. The lower edges of the housing strips 52 are advantageously spot welded to the respective sides of the tray arrangement; and the upper ends of the housing strips are received in channels 54 which are defined by formed over upper edges of the sides 32 and 34. Considering FIGS. 1 and 2 for the moment, the tray arrangement 22 will be observed to include front and back handlebars denoted respectively by the reference numerals 58 and 60; and these handlebars are conveniently fastened into the tray arrangement by means of their having been fashioned with deflected ends that fit into the housing strips 52 at the otherwise open ends of these latter elements, as is illustrated in FIG. 1. The handlebars 58 and 60 are fabricated from non-magnetic material and have proved to be useful in lifting the tray arrangement 22 out of a storage receptacle, in manipulating the tray arrangement and in replacing the tray arrangement in such a receptacle.

The magnets 50 are, in the illustrated embodiment, fabricated to be permanent magnets of high magnetic strength. Various materials are available commercially which have suitable characteristics for use in the instant invention; and among these are the alloys identified by the trade names Alnico and Vicalloy. In further accord with the illustrated embodiment, each of the magnets 50 is magnetized so that its upper edge comprises a north pole and its lower edge comprises a south pole, as is suggested in the drawing by the placement of the reference letters N and S in FIG. 4. The functioning of the magnets 50 will be described more fully hereinafter.

The divider cards 26 and the information cards 28 are adapted to rest in the tray arrangement 22 in edgewise contact with the bottom panel 40; and in order to locate the lower edges of these cards frictionally, a friction surface is provided on the bottom panel. This friction surface is advantageously defined by cork strips 62 spaced on opposite sides of the bottom panel as is illustrated in FIG. 4. Furthermore and in accordance with an important feature of the invention, the divider cards 26 are semipermanently mounted in the tray arrangement 22. For this purpose, an upwardly opening channel 64 is arranged to bisect the bottom panel 40 whereby to define a trough running centrally and longitudinally through the tray arrangement. This trough is shown in FIG. 4; and cooperatively, each of the divider cards 26 is provided with pendant tongue 66 which is adapted to be located in this trough. The tongues of the several divider cards are individually perforated with a centrally disposed aperture 68 located inwardly from the bottom edge thereof, and a locking rod 70 is passed slidably through the aligned apertures 68 as is well shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. In order to position the rod 70 positively in the trough defined by channel 64, a front bracket 72 and a rear bracket 74 are affixed to the floor panel 42, brackets 72 and 74 having upright portions which are perforated to receive the rod 70. The rod 70 includes a laterally deflected end portion 76 which is useful in manipulating the rod and in locking it in position inside the back 38 of the tray arrangement. A cooperating vertical slot 78 is fashioned in the back 38 to pass the rod 70 when the portion 76 is disposed in generally upright position.

In compliance with the features of the invention, the divider cards, but not the information cards, are arranged to be fanned by magnetic forces whereby to facilitate location of a particular divider card and its corresponding information card or cards. For this purpose, each of the semi-permanently mounted divider cards includes a non-magnetic body 80 and magnetically permeable side elements 82 as is shown in FIGS. 4 and 6. The body 80 is conveniently made up of two or more sheets of suitable paper stock that are laminated together,

- and the side elements 82 advantageously comprise thin plates or pieces of foil of a magnetic material. The side elements 82 are not preliminarily magnetized; and therefore, when they are disposed in the position shown in FIG. 4 closely aligned with the permanent magnets 50, the field surrounding each of the magnets 50 induces a magnetic polarity in the closely adjacently disposed side elements 82. This induced polarity is illustrated in FIG. 4 by the placement of the reference letters N and S on one of the side elements 82 to identify respectively the induced north and south poles. The elongated nature of the permanent magnets 50 and the described arrangement of the poles thereof develops similar polarity in each of the adjacent side elements. Since like poles repel, this similarity in polarity acts to spread the adjacent divider cards apart whereby to facilitate examination of the identifying indicia provided thereon and to expose the interleaved information cards to easy location and extractiom Continuing with reference to FIGS. 4 and 6, facility in placement of identifying indicia on the divider cards 26 and concomitant graspable extraction of the interleaved information cards is promoted by arranging each of the divider cards to have a similarly positioned first lateral portion 84 and a second or opposite lateral portion 86 that is of lesser height than the portion 84. While the width of the divider cards can be divided variously between the portions 84 and 86, approximately equal division has proved useful in the practice of the present invention. Cooperatively, each of the information cards includes a lateral portion 8'8,which is intended to be aligned with the portions 86; and the portion 88 of the information card is selected to be of greater height than the portions 86 so as to expose an upper edge region thereof above the upper edge of the portions 86, thus facilitating graspable extraction of the information cards from the tray arrangement 22.

In further accord with the present invention, each of the divider cards 26 and the associated information card or cards 28 are provided with correlating indicia 92 and 94 in accordance with the showing of FIG. 4. These indicia are disposed respectively on the lateral portion 84 of the divider card and the lateral portion 88 of the information card. These indicia have been found to assist materially in returning an extracted information card to its proper position adjacent the associated divider card.

In compliance with still another feature of the invention, the individual information cards 28 are fabricated of film strip material, in addition to being non-magnetic as described hereinabove. With the information cards comprising film strip material, they may be arranged to bear photographic records, on a reduced scale, of printed or graphic matter that is capable of being enlarged for examination, as by use of a conventional microfilm reader. In the case of automotive parts catalogs described earlier, individual pages of the catalog may be photographically reduced to the size of a rectangle 96, and an appreciable number of these rectangles can be provided on a single card of convenient dimension when arranged in tiered rows as is shown in FIG. 6. An index block or rectangle 98 is advantageously arranged to contain a guide to the material contained in the other rectangular spaces 96; and this guide block is conveniently disposed in the upper left hand corner of the information card or in some other convenient location.

In accordance with another feature of the invention, each of the information cards includes an informationfree portion 100 situated in the upper edge region thereof in the lateral portion 90 as is shown in FIG. 4. This information-free portion is adapted for grasping, particularly when the hands are dirty, whereby to preserve the information bearing areas of the card in an unsmudged condition.

It is to be realized that one or several of the information cards may be situated between each adjacent pair of the divider cards if desired. In addition, it has proved useful to situate rigid control plates 102 at the front and back of the stack of information and divider cards and at one or more intermediate positions, as is shown in FIG. 2. These control plates serve to confine the divider plates and preserve their position in magnetic circuit with the permanent magnets 50 when the tray arrangement 22 is filled to less than its full capacity. These control plates, like the other elements in the tray arrangement are fashioned from non-magnetic material such an aluminum for example. The control plates 102 are intended to be positively positioned and are, therefore, provided with depending tongues 104, shown in FIGS. 4 and 6; and these tongues enter appropriately situated and dimensioned slots 106 in the bottom panel 40 in compliance with the illustration of FIG. 5. Conveniently, the control plates are fashioned with a notch 108 which serves to pass the locking rod 70 as is shown in FIG. 4.

Tabs 110 may be attached to the upper edge of the lateral portions 84 of the divider cards 26 if desired, and additional identifying textual matter may be advantageously placed on these tabs.

The manner in which the. present invention may be evident from the foregoing descriptions.

The specific example herein shown and described is to be considered as being primarily illustrative. Various changes beyond those described will, no doubt, occur to those skilled in the art; and such changes are to be understood as forming a part of this invention insofar as they fall Within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

The invention is claimed as follows:

1. In a card filing device, the combination comprising: tray means for supporting a plurality of card elements in a substantially upright face-to-face relationship, said tray means including first and second longitudinally extending side walls interconnected by a bottom wall with a first longitudinally extending magnet means mounted on the first side wall for separating the card elements and a second longitudinally extending magnet means mounted on the second side wall for separating the card elements; a plurality of divider cards disposed in said tray means intermediate said first and second magnet means, each of said divider cards including a first side portion of a magnetizable material positioned adjacent to said first magnet means and a second side portion of a magnetizable material positioned adjacent to said second magnet means with said first and second side portions interconnected by a body portion of a non-magnetizable material, said body portion of said divider cards including a first portion having a first transversely extending outer edge located a first distance from the bottom wall of the tray means and a second portion having a second transversely extending outer edge located a second distance from the bottom wall of the tray means, said second distance being smaller than said first distance whereby said second transversely extending outer edge is located inwardly of and substantially parallel to said first transversely extending outer edge; information cards of a non-magnetic material disposed between said divider cards in face-to-face relationship therewith, said information cards comprising film strip material bearing a photographic record on a reduced scale to be enlarged for examination, said information cards having transversely extending outer edges located intermediate and extending parallel to the first and second transversely extending outer edges of said divider cards to expose portions of the information cards which are outwardly of the second transversely extending outer edge of said divider cards and spaced apart from the first portion of said divider cards; a first series of index indicia means on the first portion of said divider cards adjacent to said first transversely extending outer edge of said divider cards for identifying said divider cards; and a second series of index indicia means on said information cards outwardly of the second transversely extend- 50 ing outer edges of said divider cards and located transversely and inwardly of the first transversely extending outer edge of said divider cards for identifying said information cards, said second series of index indicia means corresponding to said first series of index indicia means to indicate with which of said divider cards an information card is associated, said first and second side portions of said divider cards being magnetized by magnetic fields emanating from said first and second magnetic means to separate the body portion of adjacently disposed divider cards to facilitate examination of said first and second series of index indicia means and other indicia on said information cards, said bottom wall including a longitudinally extending channel means; said divider cards each including a pendant tongue portion located in said longitudinally extending channel means with perforations in said tongues in substantial alignment; an elongated member passing freely through said perforations; and locking means acting between said tr-ay means and said elongated member to anchor said elongated member in said tray means and to retain said divider cards in said tray means while enabling said information cards to be withdrawn from said tray means.

2. In a card filing device, the combination according to claim 1 wherein: said information cards include an information-free portion located outwardly of the second transversely extending outer edges of said divider cards and both transversely of and inwardly of the first transversely extending outer edges of said divider cards to enable said information cards to be grasped at said information-free portion without smudging informationbearing areas of said information cards.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 906,750 12/ 1908 Sumerwell 129-165 1,233,076 7/1917 Lowenstein 129-16.7 1,467,644 9/1923 McKee 129-165 X 1,490,798 4/1924 Bullock 129-165 2,341,639 2/1944 Mathiesen 129-16 X 2,582,729 1/1952 Wassell 129-16 X 2,954,032 9/1960 Dahl 129-16 2,977,017 3/1961 Herzig 40-158 3,045,529 7/1962 Kuehnle 129-161 3,224,824 12/1965 Remke 129-16 X 3,273,565 9/1966 Townsley 129-1611 FOREIGN PATENTS 19,651 10/ 1934 Australia.

JEROME SCHNALL, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN A CARD FILING DEVICE, THE COMBINATION COMPRISING: TRAY MEANS FOR SUPPORTING A PLURALITY OF CARD ELEMENTS IN A SUBSTANTIALLY UPRIGHT FACE-TO-FACE RELATIONSHIP, SAID TRAY MEANS INCLUDING FIRST AND SECOND LONGITUDINALLY EXTENDING SIDES WALLS INTERCONNECTED BY A BOTTOM WALL WITH A FIRST LONGITUDINALLY EXTENDING MAGNET MEANS MOUNTED ON THE FIRST SIDE WALL FOR SEPARATING THE CARD ELEMENTS AND A SECOND LONGITUDINALLY EXTENDING MAGNET MEANS MOUNTED ON THE SECOND SIDE WALL FOR SEPARATING THE CARD ELEMENTS; A PLURALITY OF DIVIDER CARDS DISPOSED IN SAID TRAY MEANS INTERMEDIATE SAID FIRST AND SECOND MAGNET MEANS, EACH OF SAID DIVIDER CARDS INCLUDING A FIRST SIDE PORTION OF A MAGNETIZABLE MATERIAL POSITIONED ADJACENT TO SAID FIRST MAGNET MEANS AND A SECOND SIDE PORTION OF A MAGNETIZABLE MATERIAL POSITIONED ADJACENT TO SAID SECOND MAGNET MEANS WITH SAID FIRST AND SECOND SIDE PORTIONS INTERCONNECTED BY A BODY PORTION OF A NON-MAGNETIZABLE MATERIAL, SAID BODY PORTION OF SAID DIVIDER CARDS INCLUDING A FIRST PORTION HAVING A FIRST TRANSVERSELY EXTENDING OUTER EDGE LOCATED A FIRST DISTANCE FROM THE BOTTOM WALL OF THE TRAY MEANS AND A SECOND PORTION HAVING A SECOND TRANSVERSELY EXTENDING OUTER EDGE LOCATED A SECOND DISTANCE FROM THE BOTTOM WALL OF THE TRAY MEANS, SAID SECOND DISTANCE BEING SMALLER THAN SAID FIRST DISTANCE WHEREBY SAID SECOND TRANSVERSELY EXTENDING OUTER EDGE IS LOCATED INWARDLY OF AND SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL TO SAID FIRST TRANSVERSELY EXTENDING OUTER EDGE; INFORMATION CARDS OF A NON-MAGNETIC MATERIAL DISPOSED BETWEEN SAID DIVIDER CARDS IN FACE-TO-FACE RELATIONSHIP THEREWITH, SAID INFORMATION CARDS COMPRISING FILM STRIP MATERIAL BEARING A PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORD ON A REDUCED SCALE TO BE ENLARGED FOR EXAMINATION, SAID INFORMATION CARDS HAVING TRANSVERSELY EXTENDING OUTER EDGES LOCATED INTERMEDIATE AND EXTENDING PARLLEL TO THE FIRST AND SECOND TRANSVERSELY EXTENDING OUTER EDGES OF SAID DIVIDER CARDS TO EXPOSE PORTIONS OF THE INFORMATION CARDS WHICH ARE OUTWARDLY OF THE SECOND TRANSVERSELY EXTENDING 